WOVEN
STRUCTURES UPDATE - Part 6

Kurdish Twill-Tapestry Covers from Djezire

Mehmet KiliÁ,
of Antwerp, has assembled an interesting group of Kurdish twill
covers and curtains that have not, to my knowledge, been previously published.
They are dramatic pieces with austere designing that come from
villages south of Djezire (in Turkish: Cizre) in southeastern
Anatolia near the point where the Syrian, Iraqi and Turkish borders
meet. The pieces collected by Mehmet were woven by Goyan Kurds
in the village of Nireh (in Turkish: Bislak Basi).

Herringbone twill weave in
a Djezire cover.

The area south of Cizre, Turkey, settled by Goyan Kurds. (Photo:
Mehmet KiliÁ)

These weavings display a structure that I have not seen elsewhere among
Middle Eastern tribal textiles: single
interlocked twill tapestry. Daniel Deschuyteneer has done
a thorough study of seven pieces currently in Mehmet's
Tribal Kilim Gallery collection, and his photos here are
representative of the group.

Single interlocked twill tapestry detail
from a Djezire cover. This particular pointed twill weave variation is usually
called "Bird's-Eye Twill" by Western weavers.

Although Middle Eastern rug
weaving is done on simple, sturdy looms that produce only two sheds,
this group of Kurdish covers requires a more complex loom set-up--a
loom with four harnesses that can lift several different
combinations of warp yarns. The basic weaves shown here are all variations on ordinary 2/2 twill. Threadings
designated "herringbone" or "pointed twill" are among those used, and the surprising
ornamentation shown above has
been accomplished by combining discontinuous
wefts of contrasting colors with the twill structure. In the photo
at the right, a needle has been inserted to show how the red and
blue wefts interlock. The generic label for this group of structures is
interlocked
(2/2) twill tapestry, although if we
wish to be more specific, we can say single
interlocked twill tapestry. The fabrics are balanced weaves,
rather than the weft-faced structures used for conventional tapestry.
The ornamentation on these pieces is very nicely integrated with the
structure, because most of the motifs are constructed with
diagonals. Pattern edges often are coordinated with the twill
diamond weave pattern. Thus diamonds and triangles predominate. In another interesting
design approach, a kind of "hatching" appears, as
in traditional tapestry (see the example below). Pairs of
wefts alternate over short distances, to produce transitional areas
of horizontal lines between adjoining color areas.

Interlocking twill tapestry
wefts.

Two Djezire covers, each made with four panels. Kurdish interlocked
twill tapestry weavings from southeastern Anatolia.

The Djezire covers and
curtains in Mehmet's collection have been made with 16-inch-wide (40
cm) sections. Each has from three to six panels stitched together.
Most
of the joins are made with an open Cretan stitch. A diagram
of that join appears as Figure 16.22 in Woven
Structures. The people told Mehmet that these pieces
were used as covers, but that the smallest also served as prayer
rugs. These smaller pieces, they called "mezer."

The colors are fully saturated in these weavings, with reds and
blues predominating. The palettes are limited in most of the pieces
to three or four colors, to emphasize the structural subtleties.

Both warps and wefts in the covers are 2-ply wool, with warp
setts of from 16 to 18 warps per inch. In one exception (the red and
yellow piece below), wool singles were used for both warp and weft,
with a warp sett of 33 per inch. In some pieces two or more plied
yarns were combined for wefts. All are balanced weaves,
however.

In four of Mehmet's examples, the selvages were given no special
treatment, while in three pieces, the selvages were
reinforced with a button-hole stitch in various colors after the
weavings were removed from the loom.

The end finishes vary: included are hems, braided warp fringes
(sometimes bound together in pairs, as on the left), overhand
knotted fringe, and groups of warps wrapped with blanket-stitch
(below, left).

One piece (the example below) has added touches of embroidery along
the bottom edge. Two of the curtains have retained attached loops:
on one example, braids have been stitched along a side, while on the
piece below, a loop was attached at each end of the top hem and wrapped with
button-hole stitch.

A Djezire twill curtain made in six panels. Unlike the
other pieces, this example has wool singles used for both warp
and weft. Groups of warp fringe yarns have been wrapped, using a
button-hole stitch construction.

In some pieces, the twill
structure is emphasized by horizontal bands and vertical stripes
with warps and
wefts of contrasting colors. Sections of the bands are sometimes
elaborated with patterning made by discontinuous wefts (below,
right). Plaids are sometimes formed by intersecting warp and weft
stripes.

A three-panel Djezire Cover. Detail at the left. This piece has a
herringbone-twill weave, but no tapestry elements.

The twill patterning in most of the pieces above
is elaborated by a herringbone threading. A
zigzag sequence was established when the warps were threaded
through the loom's heddles. The patterning was then produced
automatically when a plain treadling sequence was used. A narrow
section of weft floats was offset in one direction, and that next to
it offset in
the opposite direction.

By reversing the treadling sequence after a few wefts, diamond shapes
could be produced in the twill, as with the
blue and yellow motif near the top of this page. With these options,
and sparse discontinuous patterning,
the best weavers created stunning textiles.

For a draft of the type of
weave structure used in the Djezire covers, click
here.

Detail of a plaid Djezire twill cover with interlocked tapestry
details in the wide bands.

Pastures south of Cizre, Turkey, with
flocks belonging to Goyan Kurds--makers of the twill covers above.
(Photo: Mehmet KiliÁ)

An Historic Comparison

Thus far, the only documented
historic use
of single-interlocked twill tapestry that I have found was among early Pueblo weavers in the American Southwest.
Pueblo, Hopi and Navajo weavers have used twill and pointed twill
structures prolifically, and references to cotton twill pre-historic
archaeological fragments that featured discontinuous wefts appear
occasionally. The photo below shows a fragment found in a cave near Montezuma's
Castle National Monument, Arizona. The colors are said to be white,
red and blue-black. Charles Avery Amsden, who published the
piece, assumed that it was not loom-woven
because of the discontinuous pattern wefts -- an unwarranted
assumption.

A Central Asian Example

Gurung weavers in Nepal have used 2/2
interlocked twill tapestry for simple decorations on blanket/rugs
called rari. The patterns are typically based on triangles,
squares, crosses, meander and key motifs, and the pieces are felted
in the finishing processes. The example shown uses a simple
twill, not the pointed twill above.

A Related Structure:
Double-Interlocked Twill Tapestry

South Persian moj with double-
interlocked twill tapestry structure. Also from the collection of
Mehmet KiliÁ.

The double-interlocked
twill tapestry structure found on south Persian moj is
more familiar to rug collectors. In these weavings, the designs are
usually limited to simple blocky, horizontal/vertical motifs and
stripes, rather
than the more delicate diagonal patterning of the Anatolian Kurdish Djezire
covers. When forming the design, each discontinuous
weft interlocks with two different wefts, and pattern edges are
neater if the yarns are carried straight upward. The basic weave on
these Persian pieces is nearly always a plain 2/2 twill. All floats
are offset in the same direction, creating consistent diagonals. As with
the twill structures above, this weave requires a four-harness loom.
Front and back details are shown below.

Double-interlocked
twill tapestry is also found in south Persian shawls and the
still more well-known Kashmir shawls from India--in production that
reached a peak in the mid-19th century. The scale of the structure
in these weavings,
however, is incredibly fine. Magnified details of both front and back
of a Kashmir shawl are shown
below.

A Similar Textile, with an
Unrelated Structure

After seeing Mehmet's twill
covers from the Djezire area of southeastern Anatolia, I came across
the photo below by N. Kasraian in Kurdistan, Z. Arshi and
K. Zabihi, 1990, ÷stersund, Plate 71. It shows a weaver in the
Hawraman-i-Takht village near the Iraqi border in Iran. Although
this weaver is producing narrow
panels with an appearance similar to some of the Anatolian Djezire
pieces, his loom has only two harnesses, and the narrow
balanced-weave panels (supposedly silk) on the wall, appear to have
been decorated with tapestry. The same over-all effect is produced,
but with a simpler loom set-up and plain-weave discontinuous wefts.
The narrow panels have not yet been assembled.